Paul speaking to the leaders in Ephesus said, "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God...for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears."
Declaring the whole counsel of God means preaching both the goodness and severity of the Lord.
In Romans chapter 11 Paul appeals to us to, "....consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off."
Consider the goodness and severity of God! I think it an accurate observation, and fair to state that most of the church, and people in general, consider only the goodness of God. Most want to focus almost exclusively on 'the goodness of God' and all but ignore the severity of the Lord if not outright deny it. To consider the severity and judgements of the Lord is to engage in negativity and judgmentalism so they say. Nevertheless the instruction of the scripture is to consider both the goodness and severity of the Lord. In other words we need to have an understanding of the dynamics of how they work together. The goodness of God does not negate the severity of the Lord, and the severity of the Lord does not mitigate against the goodness of the Lord!
Both are true! Both are needful! Both must be preached!
Preaching the whole counsel of God means preaching both salvation andj damnation! Preaching the whole counsel of God means preaching both heaven and hell!
Preaching the whole counsel of God means preaching salvation by grace through faith alone while at the same time working out our own salvation in fear and trembling!
Preaching the whole counsel of God means preaching both grace and mercy as well as repentance and obedience! Preaching the whole counsel of God means preaching both the wrath of God as well as the mercy of God, it means preaching mans utter sinfulness as well as Christ's imputed righteousness!
To reiterate it, declaring the whole counsel of God means preaching both the goodness and severity of the Lord. This is by no means an exhaustive juxtapositional list, but I hope you catch my drift by now.
I've often heard preachers say that if they are going to err they would rather err on the side of grace. Personally, I do not want to err at all! Your 'erring' could end up sending people to hell! Isaiah said it this way! "...For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, Yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly...(Is. 26:10)
God's justice is an attribute of His goodness. If God wasn't just and didn't judge evil and wickedness, than God would not be good. When Moses cried out to The Lord that he wanted to know Him better, God revealed to him the fullness of His glory. All of His goodness! Moses prayed, "Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You...." The Lord answered Moses saying, “I will make all My goodness pass before you..." And then, "...the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Both the goodness and the severity of the Lord work together not in opposition to each other but in harmony with each other. I hear Rom. 2:4 quoted quite often, I quote it myself very often, it is a wonderful truth! "...the goodness of God leads you to repentance...". But I never hear the very next verse quoted along with it, which completes the context and speaks to the dynamic of how both the goodness and severity of the Lord work together!
V5 - But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, (6) who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: (7) eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; (8) but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, (9) tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil..."
Yes! It is the goodness and kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance. But when God's goodness is rejected, and his appeal to repentance is ignored, when the patience and the long suffering of the Lord has been finally exhausted then it is a dangerous thing to discount and dismiss the severity of the Lord! "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. For He says, "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live? ...I take no delight in the death of the wicked but that they should turn and live." (Ez.18:23 & 32)
Therefore, according to "the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering", (Rom.2:4), he gives them time to repent.
In Revelation chapter 2 we see Jesus, the One who said, that, He did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them, we see both the goodness and severity of the Lord! Speaking to Jezebel and her apostate church of Thyatira, Jesus says, "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works."
Peter admonished the believers of his day, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" Where did Peter get that from? Peter understood both the goodness and severity of the Lord. He along with Paul declared the whole counsel of God, not just the 'happy' parts, and not just the 'feel good' parts, but echoed Ezekiel the prophet's vision in Ezekiel chapter 9. (Read Ezekiel 9 and tremble!)
God is not willing that any should perish, but many do perish! The issue isn't about God's love. God loves every single soul that falls into hell! Thats why He sent His son into the world, "For God so loved the world... That He sent His son so they would not perish!" The issue my friends is not about the love of God, the issue is how did you and I respond to that love? If you reject the message of the gospel, then you are rejecting his love, His mercy, and His goodness, upon which there's nothing left but the judgment of God. It's not simply God's love that will keep you out of hell. It's the blood of Jesus that will keep you out of hell!
Without repentance and acceptance of the gospel , there can only be but....a certain fearful expectation of judgment!
Therefore knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men! And, I will not shun to declare to you the whole counsel of God and I will not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
His grace is still amazing to me!
-Andy White-
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